The field of the disclosure relates generally to electric motor controllers, and more specifically to methods and apparatus for reducing size and costs of motor controllers for electric motors.
Devices commonly known as electronic motor controllers are utilized in the operation of certain electric motors. For example, such motor controller devices are required for some electric motor technologies such as brushless permanent magnet motors.
Typically, the motor controller device is a significant contributor to the cost of a total motor drive solution. Current motor controller configurations are typical across a range of industries and regions, which allows a permanent magnet motor to operate from fixed frequency AC power supply and have an adjustable output. These controller configurations generally consist of a single circuit board containing a single or multiple phase bridge circuit, a digital control element such as a microcontroller or Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a low voltage power supply, electrolytic bus capacitors, a diode bridge and filtering devices. Sometimes power factor correction is included in these motor controllers.
With the single circuit board configuration, the form factor of the power control components used in the motor controller drive the form factor of the remainder of the components of the motor controller.